California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 168 today, creating a new “MyFirstEV” program that gives first-time electric vehicle buyers a $3,500 instant rebate at the dealership starting later this summer.

The point-of-sale discount is backed by $135.5 million in state funding, matched dollar-for-dollar by participating automakers — and a California-headquarters rule makes Rivian and Lucid the biggest winners, while Tesla qualifies only on its cheapest models.

A private seller in Littleton, Colorado has listed a brand-new 2027 Rivian R2 Performance on Cars.com for $79,900 — roughly $20,000 over what Rivian charges for the same vehicle.

The listing went up July 1, just weeks after Rivian started delivering the R2 to its first customers, and it comes with the kind of cover story flippers tend to lean on.

Rivian has commenced an underwritten public offering of 75 million shares of common stock, a raise worth roughly $1.5 billion based on the stock’s recent price.

The capital raise lands just days after Rivian’s stock rallied on stronger-than-expected Q2 delivery results and a raised full-year outlook.

Plaintiffs in the class -action complaint allege Rivian falsely promised for years it would bring hands-free driving to its first-generation R1 vehicles.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says the money automakers charge for self-driving software won’t last, comparing autonomy to airbags: a paid option today, baked into the price of every car tomorrow.

The comments, made in a new interview with WIRED, amount to a quiet warning shot at Tesla, which just moved its “Full Self-Driving” package to a subscription-only model at $99 per month.

Rivian laid off hundreds of workers on Tuesday, or less than 2% of its workforce, just one week after it began deliveries of its all-important R2 SUV.

The electric automaker confirmed the cuts hit its service and customer teams, which include sales and marketing, as it tries to claw its way to a profit it has yet to ever post.

The company said the cuts were part of a restructuring meant to help scale to profitability. Rivian recently pushed back its profitability goal to invest in autonomy.

Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has called it "maybe the most important thing we've launched to date."

The Rivian R2 Performance’s final EPA ratings are now published, and the numbers confirm something impressive: the R2 Performance matches the Tesla Model Y Performance on efficiency at 105 MPGe combined and 32 kWh per 100 miles — while actually beating it on range with 330 miles versus 306.

What makes this particularly noteworthy is the R2’s form factor. The Rivian is a boxier, taller, more utilitarian SUV that weighs nearly 800 lbs more than the Model Y, yet it achieves identical efficiency.

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